I’ve been remiss in posting blogs over this past year having been overwhelmed by the launch of Mountain CommUnity Yoga. Today, though, after the heart-wrenching election of 11.08.16 it’s time to say something. The following comes from a friend, someone who has a strong yogi mind and amazing attitude on how to heal.

It is Nov 9, 2016 – 5:00 am. It is the morning after.

The sun has not yet risen and many of us have barely slept all night. We are witnesses to a seismic shift in our cultural tectonic plates and we have no idea what awaits us when the sun rises. Clearly a tsunami of change has rocked our world. This political result has overturned much of what we hold of value; like rag dolls our carefully ordered lives risk being shaken by every potential wind of change in the global aftershocks from this election. How will each of us find our way at sunrise? How do we hold true to our psychospiritual center of gravity as individuals and communities while our panicked political leaders freeze, react, and retreat from their personal injuries and perceived success?

Both grief and unbridled elation will roll in shock waves across the nation. Many will batten down the hatches inside and out and prepare for cultural war. Fear mongers will stockpile their arsenals of hate and the timid will be swept along blinded by the fury of the changing season. Clearly, it will be impossible to be a dispassionate witness in the days ahead. Like it or not, each of us is being offered the opportunity to engage wholeheartedly with whatever emerges. The lava and fires from this volcanic eruption will continue to devastate us, just as election did, unless we find courage to take a fresh stand on the deck of our personal lives. We are being rudely pushed to be the change we desire, and at the same time feeling lost at sea, with many of our guiding lights blackened out. Where is true North?

We are clearly seeing an uncovering of the hidden sides of our humanity that our cultural selves have denied and repressed. How each of us finds our way through boiling outrage and grief will be paramount to our healing as a nation, as a globe. Similar to what is happening out on the national stage, our egocentric selves have tried and true patterns of protection from shame, embarrassment, and the demonic hordes of anxiety that a storm such as this exposes. The good news is that each of us also has been hiding unrecognized gifts towards healing, potential for offering our uniqueness in such a time as this. As with any emergency, let us trust that the best in us will also arise.

There is no one way answer this morning, but without a shadow of doubt, I offer that we still have all that we need despite our unhinged political world. Let each of us stop, look, and listen to the shift of awareness taking place inside ourselves. Let us remember those who have gone before us, all those who still travel, who have been forced to Wayfind from similar shoes.

I wonder, like the governmental change, maybe we personally need some ‘lame-duck’ time before we rush out in response to rebuild. Maybe we need intentional time in the cocoon of winter, to melt the bones of our old ideas and find fresh dreams that come from the soul of this land, from the heart of our collective nature as human beings, from the core of Mystery.

A few words from Rilke arise this morning from his Book of Hours, II 1

You are not surprised at the force of the storm—

you have seen it growing…
… You thought you could trust that power
when you plucked the fruit:
now it becomes a riddle again
and you again a stranger.

Summer was like your house: you know
where each thing stood.
Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins.

The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.

Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have.
Be earth now, and evensong.
Be the ground lying under that sky.
Be modest now, like a thing
ripened until it is real,
so that he who began it all
can feel you when he reaches for you.

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About YogaUnbound

In developing leadership programs for executives, Gail Mann draws upon her 30 years’ experience in corporate marketing, most recently as the Director of Development Communications and Marketing for Partners HealthCare. A graduate of Simmons School of Management, Gail’s dedication to leadership and management was the driving force in her corporate career and has become the core principal of YogaUnbound. Combining leadership and management principles with yoga and meditation techniques, YogaUnbound’s mission brings mindfulness training to leaders and executives for enhanced decision-making, productivity and stress reduction.